1. One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he noticed a certain Philistine woman.
2. He went back home and said to his father and mother, “There is a Philistine woman down at Timnah who has caught my attention. Get her for me; I want to marry her.”
3. But his father and mother asked him, “Why do you have to go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can't you find a girl in our own clan, among all our people?”But Samson said to his father, “She is the one I want you to get for me. I like her.”
4. His parents did not know that it was the Lord who was leading Samson to do this, for the Lord was looking for a chance to fight the Philistines. At this time the Philistines were ruling Israel.
5. So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother. As they were going through the vineyards there, he heard a young lion roaring.
6. Suddenly the power of the Lord made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done.
7. Then he went and talked to the woman, and he liked her.